The BAKER GROUP

We are saddened by the passing of our esteemed colleague Ellen Kanarek. Ellen has been a revered member of the Baker Group team since its inception in 1999. We will miss her intellect, attention to detail, work ethic, research skills, and most of all her friendship. Rest in peace.

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The BAKER GROUP

We are saddened by the passing of our esteemed colleague Ellen Kanarek. Ellen has been a revered member of the Baker Group team since its inception in 1999. We will miss her intellect, attention to detail, work ethic, research skills, and most of all her friendship. Rest in peace.

"Maximize your school’s financial health, image, and quality. We can help you redefine the way you meet enrollment challenges." - CHB

Chris Baker literally wrote the book on enrollment management for independent schools. Since 1999 she and her associates have been working with independent schools to help them meet an ever more demanding enrollment climate. Baker has made it her mission to bring the professional strategic thinking and practices of enrollment management pioneered by leading colleges and universities to independent schools large and small. Along the way she has inspired and nurtured a new wave of the savviest admission leaders in the business. Working with The Baker Group is not only an investment in the financial health and sustainability of your school; it is an enduring investment in the people on your team.

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Director Searches

Find your next Enrollment/Admissions Leader.

Leadership Conferences

Share and build your expertise.

Enrollment Strategies

Maximize your school’s financial health, image, and quality.

Admission Office Assessments

Get the data you need.

From the Enrollment Management Primer

"Enrollment management is more than admissions - it is a strategic integration of admissions, retention, research and marketing. To thrive, schools must apply this big picture, synchronized approach.” Read more here.

Enrollment Management

Enrollment Management

"Enrollment management is a research based process that creates a synergy among recruitment, pricing and financial aid, academic affairs, student life, and constituent relations." - CHB

Enrollment Management Strategies

Developing an effective enrollment management strategy means integrating admissions, retention, research and marketing. Our projects begin with an assessment of the necessary research that will enhance a school’s understanding of its current and potential new markets. We do this by identifying relevant economic, demographic and education trends, by evaluating the current admission operationand by making recommendations to strengthen and expand institutional marketing efforts.

Our electronic surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews provide an effective means to gather “directional” feedback from internal and external constituents. Wemost often recommend a comprehensive strategy that includes surveying the entire parent and student bodies. Analyzing attitudinal feedback from current parents and students plays a critical role not only in more fully understanding a school’s enrollment picture, but also in viewing an institution’s strengths and weaknesses through an enrollment management lens.

The Sober Look

Once tailored to a school’s specific circumstances, the quantitative research collects data that allows school leaders to compare constituent satisfaction levels and the strength of a school’s programs. We segregate respondent answers by demographic subsets of the school’s population: full pay students/financial aid recipients, day students/boarding students, and lower/middle/upper school students. Using this research, a school can bring clarity not only to how it is regarded by its own families, but also how the school is perceived in the broader market. Our research identifies economic and demographic trends in the education marketplace. Understanding both constituent satisfaction levels and broader market trends is critical for effective strategic planning, for the development of mission statements, the coordination of effective print and web messaging, and the conducting of successful fund raising campaigns.

Our recommendations are designed to assist the school leaders in framing how, by using the media and its improved understanding of their markets, it can plan effectively for the future. Given the recent national downturn in admission activity and enrollment, our research can inform immediate tactical adjustments and longer term strategic direction.

Our research provides school decision-makers with answers to specific enrollment management and marketing questions, and positions them well to guide their school’s internal decisions regarding admission and retention, financial aid allocation and tuition discounting, as well as marketing and public relations efforts. To organize, revitalize, and prioritize strategic and tactical decision making we collect and use data like that listed here.

While the process was, at times, arduous, one cannot help but be amazed at the positive results. We contracted the Baker group for a multi-month engagement that focused on our admission and enrollment management processes, along with a strategic review of marketing and financial aid. The creation of action plans to improve operations infrastructure and develop “best practices” in student enrollment has been incredibly useful in fulfilling the school’s strategic goals in this vital area. A hearty thank you to Chris Baker and her team!

— Head of School

Admission Assessments

Optimize your operation.

Admission Assessments

Optimize your operation.

"When it comes to self-awareness and development, schools - like their students - can get stuck. Getting stuck is not a problem; staying stuck is." - CHB

Admission Office Assessments

With more than 50 years of experience in directing both independent school and college admission offices, our consulting team knows more about the independent school admission process than most anyone in the country. Because we understand the unique impact that history, location, mission, and leadership can exert on how a school is perceived, we are able to assess a school’s admission office infrastructure, measure its relative market strength, and identify enrollment management challenges and opportunities.

Admission offices at independent schools need to be as externally focused on trends, market indicators and marketing as they are internally focused on their school’s day-to-day programs. We assist clients in achieving an appropriate external and internal balance to effectively market their schools with projects like the ones listed below.

Admission Office Assessments in the last two years have often produced outcomes like the following:

Enrollment and operational goals set by the head of school and board of trustees.

Admission and enrollment goals set by the admission office for the current and future years.

A written plan of action describing specifically how the admission office will achieve its goals.

A written report submitted at the end of each admission cycle to outline successes and shortfalls for the year, including a summary of the goals and objectives that were achieved.

Admission Coaching and Retreats

Build your best team.

Admission Coaching and Retreats

Build your best team.

“In times of change, learners will inherit the earth–the knowers will be beautifully prepared for the world that no longer exists.” - Eric Hoffer, American writer

Admission Office Retreats

We haveconsistently received high praise for our success in building cohesive admission teams and instituting operational improvements when facilitating an admission office retreat.

The scope of our admission workshops and retreats depends entirely on the specific needs of a school’s admission and marketing staff. After reviewing basic admission data, we will advise a school on ways to focus their time together. While some schools might choose to have a facilitator for an entire admission office planning retreat, others may direct their attention on the development, training or enhancement of a particular admission and/or marketing skill, such as interviewing, maximizing the applicant review process, or utilizing volunteers in the admission process. We develop the retreat agenda collaboratively with the Admission Director in order to meet an admission and marketing staff’s professional development needs and a school’s institutional advancement opportunities.

Admission Office Retreats often include:

A research foundation from our presentation of national, regional and school-specific admission and enrollment trends.

Synthesis of school related enrollment management, admission and financial aid research and summary of findings.

Overview of a school’s current market position.

Assessments of staff personalities and work styles

Development of a renewed sense of purpose and direction and an improved connection between admission staff.

Development of an admission office action plan with annual goals and objectives.

In the short term, the most valuable aspect of the work conducted by the Baker Group was the camaraderie that developed among the office staff and the admissions officers. We were all focused on the goals, and Chris helped bring us together. In the long term, the most valuable aspect of the work conducted by the Baker Group was the analysis of the admission statistics and the trends that she highlighted (both positive and negative), which helped us refine our process and improve our yield ratios.

— Associate Head of School

Director Searches

Find your next enrollment/admission leader.

Director Searches

Find your next enrollment/admission leader.

"The Director of Admission/Enrollment Management must be positioned to be a scholar and guide with the Head, while being a strategic thinker, an analyst, and a tactician, informing other senior administrators, faculty and trustees on the internal and external trends impacting the school’s future." - CHB

Director of Admission/Enrollment Management Searches

The Baker Group directs searches for the senior enrollment officer and provides both search support and training to each school’s chosen hiring committee. Our approach to guiding schools through the search process for a senior admission professional includes:

Outline the search process for the senior enrollment officer.

Provide preliminary and ongoing support and counsel to the Head of School and/or director of search committee.

Assist in updating job description and create timeline and structure for candidate interview and visit process.

Assist in outreach to candidates from both independent and college admission.

Assist in review of resumes and candidate screening resulting in recommendation of top six candidates for initial interviews, followed by recommendation of top two finalists after interviews have taken place.

Perhaps more important than any other person on campus other than the Head of School, the Director of Admission/Enrollment Management needs to be a scholar and guide, a strategic thinker and analyst, a resource for other senior administrators, faculty and trustees on the internal and external trends impacting the school’s future. The admission director and the admission operation must play critical roles in an independent school’s strategic thinking and planning.

Because independent schools are so heavily dependent on enrollment to generate the major portion of their annual operating incomes, admission/enrollment management directors must be experienced professionals who are well informed about the shifts in thinking relevant to admission, marketing, the education landscape, the increased affordability challenges for families, and the impact all these elements have on independent school admission and future enrollment.

We assist schools to think more creatively, more energetically and more intentionally when they choose the senior enrollment officer of their school.

Working with Chris Baker on the search for a new Dean of Admission was invaluable to me and to others involved in the search. She is honest, thorough, knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. We would give Chris and the Baker Group the highest recommendation. 